From a Yosemite Ranger: “Today I worked. We held Yosemite open to 4th-of-July-level traffic with no support staff whatsoever. We did so with 4 rangers in Wawona/Badger, 4 in Yosemite Valley and (may be slightly off....) 4 in Mather. That is 12 people working while we were seeing 240-270 cars per hou...

@skatchkins Unbelievable, right?! Same at Joshua Tree - they are closing their campgrounds and some day use areas due to trash, human waste, and other violations. It's a free for all. Once again, given the chance to prove they could be good stewards of the land, the public has proven that they CANN...

This was written by an NPS Ranger friend of mine - I think she really hit the nail on the head! -KW Why I won’t be visiting a federal agency during the shutdown. Maybe We The People shouldn't be out having fun when our government is in a shutdown. While working the shutdown I’ve noticed some America...

I was impressed to read that "A bobcat consumes prodigious numbers of prey. It is estimated, for instance, that a female (mama) bobcat and three kittens to which she gave birth (avg.) at the beginning of her second year of life will consume at least 3800 rats, 700 cottontail rabbits, and 3200 mice ...

Yup, perfect for those who will never drive off-pavement... unless by mistake I am unfamiliar with the Chumley story ( I can only imagine, lol) but I do know that my humble CR-V has carried me quite well off pavement - purposely - many, many times. She gets me to Aravaipa Canyon, up Graham, up Carr...

@cw50must
That is probably the ugliest thing I've ever seen ... but I'd still take it! Lol
Edit: I posted that before looking at the link, based on previous photos I had seen ... I actually kinda like that orange one.

@hikeaz
Thanks, that was an interesting read!
I never realized that the area had been purposely cleared to expose all those fossils and create an "exhibit" - pretty cool.
They also mentioned similar tracks near Dripping Springs, probably the ones I meant.

Has anybody ever noticed the large, interesting fossil tracks that run diagonally up a boulder along the Dripping Springs trail? I can't remember exactly where, and I can't find a photo in my photosets, but they are there. My question is, don't they look just like the ones in this article? Geologist...

Gogogo wrote:Would hiking the day hikes at the Grand Canyon eg to cedar ridge and the 3 mile rest house be acceptable options? Clearly these don’t have the same elevation change as a Phantom hike, even if we do multiple laps!

I looked back at my February SK/Tonto/BA hike and I had snow, ice, sunny 70 degree perfection, thick sloppy mud, then more snow and ice - be ready for anything! Generally my Feb. hikes in the Canyon were very enjoyable.

@chumley
Happy to say not me either! Kind of fun to look back on that and read "I always wanted to be a Park Ranger" ... never thought at that point that I would finally achieve my dream job a couple years later!